Spaceflight Insider

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — After announcing a 24-hour slip to Dec. 12, SpaceX has pushed back the flight of a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the CRS-13 Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Station again to Friday, Dec. 15.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has slipped an additional 24 hours to "allow for additional time for pre-launch ground checks." This information is per a post made on Twitter by SpaceX at 6:50 p.m. EST (10:50 GMT) on Monday, Dec. 11.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX is making final preparations to launch CRS-13 in what should be the company's 17th launch of the year. The flight-proven Falcon 9 and Dragon vehicles are scheduled to lift off on Dec. 12 during an “instantaneous” launch window that opens at 11:46 a.m. EST (16:46 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX hosted a briefing to members of the media on Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, to provide an overview of work that has been done to return to service Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) after the Sept. 1, 2016, explosion of a Falcon 9 rocket caused severe damage to the site.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the CRS-13 Dragon spacecraft has slipped again, with NASA stating that the new launch time is now Dec. 12, with the "instantaneous" launch window opening at 11:46 a.m. EST (16:46 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 in Florida.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The classified "Zuma" mission has been delayed, and a report from an unconfirmed source suggests that the reason for the delay could cause a premature close to most of the remainder of SpaceX's 2017 launch manifest.

Both SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) have rescheduled their next launches from the East and West Coasts, respectively. SpaceX, which will be sending the mystery “Zuma” payload into space atop a Falcon 9 rocket, opted to postpone by at least a day to examine data from a recent payload fairing test. ULA, on the other hand, is hoping to fly its Delta II after two scrubbed attempts.

A SpaceX Block 5 rocket engine encountered an anomaly on the test stand during a qualification test held on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017, at the NewSpace firm's site located in McGregor, Texas. The accident was made public three days later on Wednesday and comes at a time when the company is experiencing an unprecedented rate of launch.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — SpaceX is getting ready to launch a South Korean communications satellite, Koreasat 5A, into orbit atop a Falcon 9 rocket. The flight will be the 16th that the Hawthorne, California-based company has performed in 2017.

Though Iridium Communications is now targeting a launch date near the end of the year for the Iridium-4 mission, the company demonstrated its faith in the quality of SpaceX's hardware and refurbishing regime by opting to fly on a "flight-proven" Falcon 9 first stage.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Much like the tile-matching video game of the same name, what the payload could be for a suggested Nov. 10, 2017, SpaceX "mystery" launch remains a puzzle. As was reported on SpaceFlight Now, regulatory findings suggest the company could attempt a launch 11 days after the planned Oct. 30 flight of Koreasat 5A.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Hot on the heels of a Falcon 9 launch on the West Coast, SpaceX sent its 15th rocket into space in 2017. The SES-11/EchoStar-105 mission came less than 60 hours after the NewSpace company sent 10 Iridium NEXT satellites into orbit. Liftoff occurred at 6:53 p.m. EDT (22:53 GMT) Oct. 11, 2017, from Launch Complex 39A.